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LIBRARY OF THE 


College of Missions 


INDIANAPOLIS 


DUKE UNIVERSITY 


LIBRARY 


Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2022 with funding from 
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https://archive.org/details/africaneuropeanlo1unse 


The African, European, and Latin 
American Fields 


The African,‘ European 


and 


Latin American Fields 


Addresses delivered before the 
Eastern Missionary Con- 
vention of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church, Philadelphia, 
Pa., October 13-15, 1903 


NEW YORK: EATON & MAINS 
CINCINNATI: JENNINGS & PYE 


The Philadelphia Convention Addresses are pub- 
lished in a series of seven small volumes, of 
which this is one. The volumes are entitled: 


A CALL TO ADVANCE 
MISSIONS AND WORLD MOVEMENTS 
THE ASIATIC FIELDS 


THE AFRICAN, EUROPEAN, AND 
LATIN AMERICAN FIELDS 


GENERAL SURVEY AND HOME FIELDS 
YOUNG PEOPLE AND MISSIONS 
THE MISSIONARY WORKSHOP 


CopyRIGHT, 1904, BY 
Eaton & Mains 


‘Ow, Sch. 
a6 6.7 63a 
NAads 
IQOU 


CONTENTS: 
PAGE 
PANGS ADIN rennet ioc tice eh a/anisiormeaeis i 
Rey. Erwin H. Richards, D.D. 
IU, LIGRO RS SAAR Ae eee 49 
Rey. William H. Crawford, D.D. 
NENTes Se ACHUN MAIIIORICA Soc. c's She ca ose 76 


Rev. Charles W. Drees, D.D. 


IV. DirricuLTiEs IN THE FOREIGN 
MISSION. EMDEIGD): 1012 ose) since 100 


Rev. W. F. Oldham, D.D. 


fn Binh Ae ‘ . 
a ap. " 

y a om, ees ae 
aie! > ha hy 
in, 
att, ay. 

hs 4 , 
. 
F 
‘ 
' 
. 


The African, European, 


and 


Latin American Fields. 


], 
AFRICA. 


By REV. ERWIN H. RICHARDS, D.D. 


AFRIca is at a long remove from you in 
her progress in Christian civilization; her 
schools are not yet, and her church spires 
have never been seen by the great masses 
of her one hundred and fifty millions of 
human beings. Yet her land is beautiful. 
The same creating Hand which wrought 
America wrought also Africa, and “He 
doeth all things well.” 

” 4 


Arrica, Europr, Latin AMERICA. 


He created the continents in so com- 
plete, so perfect a way that we cannot dis- 
cover which he made first nor which he 
made best. “Every prospect pleases, and 
only man is vile.’ And we ought to note 
well in passing that this “man” is not so 
vile as many a Methodist in the homeland 
who does not believe very much in foreign 
missions and does not work much for the 
little in which he believes. As missionaries 
we prefer the original heathen to the sort 
of people who have manufactured them- 
selves into heathen regardless of Bibles and 
teachers and schools. There are quicker 
and far richer results with the original 
breed. 


A VAst CoNTINENT AND ITS PEOPLE. 


And people! Yes, we have them. You 
may count every one of your own citizens 
from ocean to ocean, and from Alaska to 


the Philippines, and if you do not count 
8 


— ll a a 


AFRICA, 


them twice we shall have as many as you— 
yes, two to your one and with same to spare 
—scattered over a country so great that, 
should you place all India, with all her 
millions, in Africa she would not cover the 
country south of the Zambesi. All of China, 
with all her millions, could easily be accom- 
modated in Africa’s West. All of Europe, 
with all her civilization, could be superim- 
posed upon Africa’s East. The Mikado’s 
empire and other large island areas could 
be placed over her northern borders. And 
then your whole glorious United States, 
with all their prodigious boasting, might 
easily be set down within her interior, where 
even then they would rattle about like dice 
in a box against their broad encircling 
boundaries. 

We are proud of our Congo, with its 
channel nine hundred feet deep. We are 
proud of our Nile, the longest and most 
historic river in the world. We are proud 


9 


Arrica, Eurore, Latin AMERICA. 


of our Zambesi, with its greatest falls on 
the face of the earth. And we are proud of 
our people, because, while naturally en- 
dowed with the least amount of human ad- 
vantages and long neglected, apparently by 
both Christendom and the Creator, it is pos- 
sible for them to become the most faithful 
followers of the “Man of Calvary” and in- 
heritors of the estate of the sons of God. It 
is manlike to save the fitting and the best. 
It is Christlike to save also the lowest and 
the least. 

And are not ours a people? Our men can 
talk as rapidly and oftentimes as emptily as 
can any of yours, and they will not use one 
syllable of your language. What is equally 
astonishing, our women can talk as fast as 
your women, and never repeat a single sylla- 
ble of any language, ancient or modern, save 
their own. It would be a most difficult 
problem to prove that our Africans are not 


a real people. The Boers held that notion 
10 


‘AFRICA, 


for two hundred years, but Providence and 
Great Britain recently argued it out of them, 
and all over that vast area formerly known 
as the Transvaal and the Orange “Free” 
State the African has suddenly leaped all 
the way from being an animal to becoming 
a man. And the strangest of all strange 
things is this: that many of you Americans, 
so far as printers’ ink revealed the matter, 
lent your prayers—when you offered any— 
and your sympathy to the Boer, quite as if 
you had forgotten all the blood and tears of 
the early sixties, or that taxation without 
representation caused the war of ’76 and 
established American independence! We 
should like to speak whole bookfuls con- 
cerning the Briton in Africa, Rhodes in 
Rhodesia, and the late Boer and his war, but 
for the present we are to speak of the suc- 
cess of the evangelization of the African, © 
with some hints as to possibilities of work 


among black people who are at home. 
II 


AFRIcA, EUROPE, LATIN AMERICA, 


THE QUESTION STATED AND ANSWERED. 


The Bible manner of stating this question 
would be, “Watchman, what of the night?” 
The Yankee way of getting at the same 
thing would be “Do foreign missions pay?” 
—for of all created men on the face of the 
earth the Yankee is most eager to discover 
whether things pay or not. Concerning 
Africa, we have several observations to offer, 
each one of them pointing conclusively to 
the fact that foreign missions pay exceed- 
ingly heavy dividends both spiritually and 
financially. Spiritual dividends are usually 
“hoped for” in our faith, but financial div- 
idends on our missionary investments are 
never thought of. In fact, we are pleased 
for the most part to take a far more des- 
pondent view of foreign missions than our 
heavenly Father ever intended. But as his 
plans work out they invariably return to 


each of his coworkers the “good measure, 
12 


AFRICA. 


pressed down, shaken together, running 
over” both spiritual and temporal, according 
to his word. 


Fruit FROM ExtTENDED TILLAGE. 


Let us observe what has taken place in 
the older parts of civilized South Africa, 
where for one hundred years the Gospel has 
been preached to the once “raw heathen.” 
Leaving the city of Cape Town with its 
40,000 white people, closely nestled within 
the foothills of the very tips of the Draken- 
berg, let us take a Pullman car for 800 miles 
across Cape Colony to the little country 
town of Healton. First, what State in the 
Union happens to have an area 800 miles 
one way by 600 miles the other? Rhode 
Island would hardly come up to it, nor 
Delaware—nor both these States tacked on 
to the largest State in the Union. Yet Cape 
Colony is small compared with other colo- 
nies of South Africa. 

13 


AFRICA, EUROPE, LATIN AMERICA. 


In this little town of Healton stands a 
fine Wesleyan Chapel with brick and stone 
walls, with modern windows, with a full 
house of worshipers, with a pastor all her 
own. This pastor is a graduate of Love- 
dale, college and seminary trained; for the 
Briton believes that in educating the native 
he will become a producer and a benefactor 
to the nation. One hundred years ago the ~ 
grandparents of these people were the Hot- 
tentots and Bushmen of the country, too ig- ~ 
norant to pile grass over their heads when 
it rained and burrowing for a home like 
porcupines and hares. To-day they sit, clad 
and in their own right minds, listening to 
the preaching of God’s word in the English 
language and singing the same hymns and 
spiritual songs which you sing. What a 
change there has been! What a sudden 
change! For your speaker has conversed 
with the son of the earliest missionary to the 
Hottentots. Is it nothing that these who 

14 


AFRICA, 


never heard of God now know him? Is it 
naught that hope and joy have thrilled the 
hearts of these worshipers, to whom so short 
a time since even to mention future exist- 
ence was a horror, and who believed that 
death ends all? Would you, if any there 
are, who attend church but little and prayer 
meeting less, care to exchange what little 
of hope you may have for all the joys of 
the Hottentot a century ago? Foreign mis- 
sions pay spiritually. 

As one glances over the congregation he 
can but wonder where all those ladies’ hats 
came from, whence came those very recent 
newest patterns for clothing for both gentle- 
men and ladies, as well as for even the 
children. And when one enters the homes 
of these thriving people he finds every latest 
American convenience there. In_ the 
house is a stove. None but the Yankee can 
make a “stove.” The Germans make a pile 
of mortar with a hole in the middle and call 


15 


AFRICA, EUROPE, LATIN AMERICA. 


it an oven. Others make a hole in the 
ground and bake in it. But it takes an 
American to make a stove. So with our 
furniture, our clothing, our labor-saving 
devices. Out on the farm we find Ameri- 
can farming implements; they are all there, 
even to the windmill. There is scarcely a 
manufacturer of the larger grade in Amer- 
ica who does not advertise his goods in 
South Africa as soon as he places them on 
the markets anywhere; oftentimes much 
sooner. 

Should a lady desire to know what she 
will be wearing next fortnight—something 
which will be strictly “new” and mark her 
as “the lady of the Avenue,” if she will 
turn her mimic lens on Cape Town she will 
observe her “sister in black” promenading 
with the very parasol which shall render her 
proud soul happy as soon as the tardy sea- 
son will permit. People in Africa read in 


their evening papers the identical news 
16 


AFRICA. 


which you cannot read till morning. When 
President McKinley was assassinated you 
could not let them know of it till some eight 
or nine hours had passed by, and when they 
informed you of the death of Mr. Rhodes as 
many hours before the event occurred they 
were astronomically correct in their time. 
You think yourselves “up” in the world, 
but when such things occur one cannot but 
inquire which is “up” anyway, and who it 
is that are there. 

We have more than one congregation 
of such tastefully clad, well-to-do native 
people. They are scattered all over Cape 
Colony and Natal, and when counted in the 
records we find a great army of them as 
large as the Union army at Gettysburg. The 
recent reports show that there are no less 
than 84,000 native Wesleyans alone, to say 
nothing of the great Church of England, 
the German, the Norwegian, the French, 
the Baptist, the Presbyterian, the Congre- 

2 17 


AFricA, Europe, LATIN AMERICA. 


gational, and a host of others, whose devout 
followers of the Lamb would doubtless swell 
this hopeful host to more than a quarter of 
a million in South Africa alone. 


PRAYER AND WANTS. 


We have often noticed while on the vir- 
gin soil that when a native-born heathen 
begins to pray the first thing that happens 
is he wants a shirt. Who makes that shirt 
—save the American? He prays farther 
and wants more. The more he prays the 
more he wants. And he wants, and wants, 
till he has secured for himself about every- 
thing the Gospel has to give to those who 
believe in it. It is astonishing that he never 
began to want till he began to pray! But 
the real and original native, who, with all 
his ancestors for generations has followed 
the devil, when he once begins to come 
to himself finds that “self” of his pretty 


much out of everything he ought to have. 
18 


~—— 


AFRICA. 


Hence when he begins to become a Chris- 
tian he naturally wants everything which 
the Christ of the Christians has to give him. 
In all his days he never had a shirt, a spoon, 
a plate, a chair, a bed, nor the ten thousand 
other blessings which his Creator meant 
should all be his. These blessings are, every 
one of them, yours. Did you ever thank 
the Lord for a spoon, or a candle, or even 
a match with which to light your fire? The 
African wants them all. He will have them 
all, every one of them. But he will not have 
them for nothing. He will pay for them. 
He is rich, and his wealth is all for you. 
The wealth of Africa is not in her diamond 
mines—and no country has richer or 
deeper ones. It is not in her gold mines— 
and no nation has richer ones or more of 
them. The wealth of Africa lies in the 
strong right arm of the children of Africa, 
and that same right arm of 150,000,000 of 
her children will work for you, will most 
19 


AFrIcaA, Europe, LAtrn AMERICA. 


unceasingly work for you till you have 
given her the very last blessing which the 
Gospel has given you. Why is beef so dear 
in America to-day? Because a million of the 
dusky sons of Africa have learned its taste, 
and thousands of tons of your best beef go 
there every year. So it is with oil, so with 
machinery, so with railroad material, so 
with about all you have to sell, till vessels 
are scarcely able at the present time to carry 
over the enormous freightage of your trade. 
And yet you have only begun to sell goods 
in Africa. What will it become when the 
most of her millions have learned to pur- 
chase better things? And they are certain to 
learn. So, then, we affirm that foreign 
missions pay, and pay financially. 


Tur RETURNS FROM A NEWER SECTION. 


Let us observe what is now going on in 
the sections just emerging from heathenism, 


where so late as fifty years ago there was 
20 


a a 


‘AFRICA. 


scarcely a native congregation of Christian 
worshipers in all the land. Twenty-two 
years ago we spent our first Sunday on a 
mission station in Natal. The church was 
rude; it had bare walls, most inconvenient 
benches, with slight rest for the back, but it 
was filled with worshipers. We have since 
that time been firmly convinced that a poor 
chapel with a host of people is more to be 
desired than a “modern” church full of 
nearly empty seats with a mere spattering 
of people. We shall never forget the “sing- 
ing” that morning. It was piercing, and 
rose above the shrieking of half a dozen lo- 
comotive whistles. It pierced us through, 
and the wounds are scarcely healed yet. But 


> 


they thought it “music,” and it was music 
to them. In the choir sat four young wom- 
en, each one of them as large as any three in 
this congregation all rolled into one, and 
they were clad in silk dresses. But the pat- 


tern was never intended for the wearer, nor 
21 


ArFrica, Europe, LATIN AMERICA, 


the wearer for the pattern. The trimming 
on the one side never made any connection 
with the other, nor had the buttons any spe- 
cial relation locally to their respective but- 
tonholes. The ladies were all bareheaded 
and barefooted, nor would it appear that 
they were clad in any additional apparel. 
How they did swell up and ring out those 
good old Church tunes!—but with such 
modifications that their writer would never 
have recognized them. Half of those in the 
house were raw heathen in their native 
dress, with hardly a stitch of anything Eu- 
ropean about them. They were clad in a 
palmful of palm-oil—mingled with a val- 
ley-full of sunshine—and little else. But they 
were there, and evidently as much at home 
in that congregation as those who were in 
the choir. At that time in that mission the 
native pastors were every one of them 
drawing their respective salaries from an 
American treasury. Their schools were 
22 


‘AFRICA, 


largely assisted by American funds, and 
foreign aid was the order of the day. 

Three years ago we visited that same 
church and found almost the entire congre- 
gation clad, and in their right minds, with 
every pastor in that mission supported by 
funds raised on the mission field by the na- 
tives themselves, and the once ear-splitting 
choir. had now become so richly musical 
_ that they had rendered the Cantata of 
Esther in the Town Hall in Durban, with 
soine of the officials of the colony present, 
and had done it so well that they were in- 
vited to repeat their effort in several of the 
larger towns of the colony. Little out- 
stations, begun here and there by some 
untutored but energetic and Christian 
youth, had now become a hundred strong, 
and bade fair soon to outnumber their own 
mother church. Other outstations were 
multiplying indefinitely and thousands of 
natives, who formerly knew nothing of their 

23 


AFRICA, Europe, Latin AMERICA. 


Creator, now knew him and were eager 
to learn of him. All this great and sudden 
change has occurred within the brief span 
of our own mission life; and when we take 
note of the tremendous growth in things 
temporal and things eternal we cannot but 
affirm again that within this middle section, 
between the civilized old Cape and the to- 
tally uncivilized regions to the northward, 
where your present missions lie, foreign 
missions pay. They pay the government in 
cash returns hundreds of per cent profit. 
They pay the mission lands, whence come 
their mission teachers, hundreds of per cent 
profit. And they pay the Church of the 
Heavens, to which they belong, their Re- 
deemer and their King, immeasurably more. 
Foreign missions pay. 


‘A Tract oF VirciIn Sort. 


Let us observe what is taking place on 
the virgin soil of your own little mission in 
24 ; 


AFRICA, 


the Portuguese district of Inhambane. 
Your missionary landed there twenty-three 
years ago (December, 1880). These people 
had then never seen the letter “a” nor any 
ink in any shape. They had no alphabet, 
no dictionary, nor had anyone attempted 
to reduce their language to writing. There 
were people, people everywhere, but not 
a word of theirs was familiar to this new 
missionary. We did not know what bound- 
ed them on the north. We journeyed by 
day, and often by night, for two weeks, and 
never found anything but wild beasts and 
wild men. They were bounded on the east 
by the ocean. This much was definite. 
They were bounded on the south by the 
British flag—if one went about five hun- 
dred miles in that direction—and your mis- 
sionary went that far on foot, for, to this 
day, the go-a-foot express is the only avail- 
able vehicle for traveling in that locality. 
How were they bounded on the west? We 
25 


Arrica, Europe, Latin AMERICA. 


have been in that direction for three weeks 
at a time, and never found anything but 
wild beasts and wild people. We could 
discover on a map, made by some geogra- 
pher who never was there, who were our 
neighbors in these various directions, but 
one would never discover it if he were let 
loose to wander over the face of that region. 
He would discover thousands and tens of 
thousands of human beings, every one of 
whom was made in the image of God, 
swarming the river valleys, fringing the 
thousands of lakelets, and dotting thick the 
country wherever moisture could be found, 
and not one in a hundred of them had ever 
heard of the Creator or knew upon whose 
green earth he dwelt. 

They were as piteously ignorant of the 
life that now is and the conditions of the 
better life to come as the nonbeliever in 
Christian lands who persistently ignores 


the same glorious conditions. The only 
26 


reer, 


AFRICA. 


scriptural knowledge of the native is a per- 
verted knowledge, gained perchance at the 
diamond fields or at the Rand, where, hav- 
ing heard great swelling words from this 
same nonchurchgoer, he returns to his 
humble hut and proceeds to name his inno- 
cent little ones, “bloody-cuss,” “‘little devil,” 
and scores of other such terms, only he has 
not the faintest suspicion as to what these 
“big” terms mean. As nearly as can be 
estimated from tax collections, from ex- 
ports, and from personal observation, there 
are more than three millions of human be- 
ings in our own back yard who are waiting 
now and have waited long for the Bread of 
Life, and it has never come nigh to them. 
Amid this writhing mass of dying humanity 
the great Methodist Episcopal Church is 
supporting two missionaries at the present 
time, and for the past decade and more it 
has not kept any greater number in Portu- 
guese East Africa. 
27 


AFRICA, EUROPE, LATIN AMERICA. 


CoNnpDItIons IN Our FIELD. 


The district of Inhambane is under the 
Roman rule of the pope. It is a Catholic 
government, and as such it cannot recognize 
Protestant missionaries. It would be ille- 
gal if it should. It will treat with us as 
“traders,” as “planters,” as “artisans,” and 
grant us liberal favors, but cannot recognize 
us as religious teachers, because we are 
not only not of them, but are opposed to 
them in many ways. We have this to say 
of them, that during our long residence 
within their borders the government has 
treated us liberally and in no way different 
from their own regular citizens—save in 
the matter of religious privileges, which it 
is not theirs to give, according to the laws 
of the land. 

Our first mission station was purchased 
from a native chief who had power, under 


native law, to put us upon his ground but 
28 


AFRICA, 


could not put us off again against our will. 
He gave us a piece of land containing some 
three square miles, in exchange for which 
we gave him a cast-off overcoat and a use- 
less old musket. We were mutually de- 
lighted with our trade, and both values 
would have brought about the same price 
had they been placed on the market, for 
land and fresh air do not differ greatly in 
price in the land of Inhambane. The gov- 
ernment price is only some five acres for 
a penny. Sooner than wait half an eter- 
nity for ancestors to quit their possessions 
and give the hungry heirs.a chance, why 
do not the restless neglecters of our religion 
here at home go to a country where they 
can have large estates practically without 
cost, and on demand, in the midst of a de- 
lightful summerland, where dreary autumn 
and the storms of winter never come? 

The mission home was first erected, not 
a palatial affair at all, but considerably 

29 


Africa, Europe, LATIN AMERICA. 


finer than anything in the surrounding 
country, where a house was unknown, and 
a “hut” was its only representative. But 
how to move the materials for a house was 
the question. There were no roads, no 
horses, no mules, no donkeys. But there 
was something else quite as valuable, in 
itself considered, and also no mean substi- 
tute for carrying purposes, and that was 
the African woman. Women make a capi- 
tal freight-train when once they are prop- 
erly harnessed. In fact they will harness 
themselves, load themselves, and carry the 
freight, a hundred pounds at a time, with 
skill and care, and never once capsize or 
side-track their burden. The rate of 
wages in the beginning was five days’ 
service for two handkerchiefs—of not 
the value of a dime for the two—and 
we were roundly rated by the Arabs and 
others because we did not make them work 
fifteen days for the same amount. Their 
30 


‘AFRICA. 


wages have not increased to any extent to 

‘this day, and yet, while they are willing to 
labor at this heathenish rate, there is no 
one to employ them in all the land. One 
of the most difficult problems on our sta- 
tions to-day is how to exchange the toil of 
our Christian hands for sufficient to cover 
our nakedness, because there is none to em- 
ploy us, and markets are so unrequiting 
that it is well-nigh impossible. 


AN ORIGINAL LESSON CHART. 


While we were erecting our home, and 
before there was a roof over our heads, the 
missionary’s wife had smoothed over the 
ground with a bit of ceiling-board, and had 
made the letters of the alphabet upon the 
earth; and a hundred dusky children were 
pressing about on every side, thinking it 
the fun of their lives to make such crooked 
marks and call them such strange names, 
Out of that original number, who learned 

31 


AFRICA, EUROPE, LATIN AMERICA. 


their alphabet off mother earth, five are 
to-day ministers in our outstations or wives 
of such ministers. The very first effort 
ever made brought forth its hundredfold 


fruitage. 


HEATHEN “PRIZES” FOR WOMANHOOD. 


Our native chief—still living among us 
—having paid considerable attention to this 
“new” missionary sort of woman that had 
appeared in his dominions, came one morn- 
ing with great loads of cloth, upon the 
shoulders of many bearers, and issued an 
order for another wife as like as possible 
to the missionary’s wife, because he ob- 
served that her. sort was worth more than- 
his sort. He would not have her for noth- 
ing, but like to his far-distant father, 
Abraham, he would pay the “shekels” in 
so many loads of current cloth. He did 
not know of “lions in the way” of purchas- 
ing women in any land. He was honest, 

33 


= 


—- = 


AFRICA. 


and meant no insult to any woman. He 
took the only honorable method known in 
his land for obtaining a wife. In Natal 
these native women are sold to this day, 
legally too, for ten head of horned cattle. 
With us they used to be sold for a hundred 
pieces of cloth, but now they have risen 


-to something like $100 in gold, and they 


are fast becoming dearer. We fondly hope 
that the time will soon arrive when they 
will have become so dear that they cannot 
be sold at all. Just over our northern bor- 
ders, in the regions of the head waters of the 
Congo, we find that the market price of 
choice women—in carefully assorted lots— 
such as we see before us at the present time, 
is $168 per dozen! There is no evidence 
of their having been “marked down” from 


higher prices. This is the region where 


Solomon is supposed to have secured some 

of his goods, and judging from his reputed 

wealth, and from what we have heard of 
3 33 


AFRICA, EurRoPE, LATIN AMERICA. 


market rates for the women of these re- 
gions, we see no reason why the Bible 
statement concerning his abundant harem 
is not approximately correct. This state- 
ment may catise a smile, as you read it in 
your civilized and Christian home, where 
every right is secured by law and where 
your women are especially protected, but 
if it were you, if you were a woman being 
sold at the age of ten or younger to some 
octogenarian whose name and residence you 
had never known, with the instinctive repul- 
sion of a real and living human being, your 
soul would flame with indignation. It is 
with this polygamy and with the selling of 
women of every age and condition that the 
missionary finds he must wage immediate 
and unceasing war. 


RESOURCES OF LANGUAGE. 


And the language of these people! Is it 
possible that their own native dialect is 
34 


AFRICA. 


capable of conveying to their minds the sa- 
cred truths of the Bible and the modern 
and historic learning of other lands? Most 
surely it is. Many of their expressions are 
explosively emphatic. When an African 
is hungry he uses no such tame statement as 
do we, but with hands over his compressed 
stomach he says, “I feel a famine.” When 
he meets a long-absent old friend he does 
not exclaim in the tamest of words, “I am 
glad to see you.” But with apparent and 
‘great joy he exclaims, “I am split to see 
you.” An electric streak of purest joy 
has actually passed through him and 
cleft him’ in twain, as the ax cleaves 
the block of wood. His language is so 
simple that a child of three years of age 
never stumbles on grammatical construction 
or on the idiom of speech. The vowel and 
the consonant never have but.one and the 
same sound. He learns to read in a tenth 
part of the time which would be required 
35 


AFRICA, EUROPE, LATIN AMERICA. 


were his spelling not absolutely phonetic. 
His vocabulary is full in every sort of ex- 
pression pertaining to his own region, but 
of course new thoughts require new words, 
and religious ideas are for the most part 
quite foreign to his understanding. We 
may put the words, “Our Father who art 
in heaven,” into his words, but we cannot 
put the same thought into them, since his 
thoughts are not our thoughts—nor are 
ours so rich by far as must be the thoughts 
of the angels above us. We are above him, 
but others are far above us. If our Father 
has done so much for us through this most 
faulty language of ours how is it not pos- 
sible for him to do great things for them, 
whereof they shall be glad and praise him 
forever! Thanks be to his name, he has 
done, and is still doing, and will continue to 
do great things for them. 

One may teach important truths with 
considerable force long before he has mas- 


36 


AFRICA, 


tered the language. Perhaps the ablest 
“sermon” we ever delivered was given one 
morning when we could not yet tell in their 
own tongue what we readily comprehended. 
- A man was beating a woman—presumably 
his wife, for having purchased her he could 
do what he pleased with her—whereupon 
the missionary in charge had the man ar- 
rested and brought before the officer of 
the district, who gave him a beating very 
similar to that which he had administered 
to his wife. That sermon was most effect- 
ive; for within miles of that mission station 
to this day they dare not beat a woman to 
any extent, lest she tell that very queer 
missionary about it all, and the beating re- 
turn to him who gave it. Murder and mis- 
deeds are often left uncommitted within 
a goodly radius of that mission station of 
yours, because it is known that the teach- 
ings of the Book and the practice of the 
missionary are all against it. It is marvel- 


37 


AFRICA, EUROPE, LATIN AMERICA. 


ous how great an amount of good the man 
with the Book will accomplish, even if he 
cannot express himself fluently in their 
speech. On many occasions helpless girls 
have fled to the mission station for refuge 
from cruel parents who were determined to 
sell them into horrible bondage, and they 
will even commit suicide, in many instances, 
rather than enter into it. 


First Pornts oF ConTAcT. 


The “heathen” appear to be so very like 
to other people who will not attend church, 
that they seldom wish to see a messenger 
of the Gospel unless they are in dire dis- 
tress and think they are about to die. Then 
they will rush to him or send for him if 
they may; so from among those women 
who were so desperate as to think of suicide, 
those girls who would rather die than live, 
and certain others in great distress who 


approached the mission station through the 
38 


AFRICA, 


medical dispensary, the first converts to 
the new religion were obtained. To be 
sure, when we preached heaven and eter- 
nal life to the many wayside groups some 
one would usually reply, “Yes, I am so 
glad there is a heaven. It is just what I 
should think would be prepared for me, 
and I am going into it.” But he wishes to 
go in with every sin clinging tightly to him, 
nor is he willing to be released from one of 
them. When we preach of the realm of the 
lost he replies, “Yes, I am ever so glad 
there is such a place prepared for the bad. 
There are Masengiti and Magaramana— 
who are so bad! It is just the sort of place 
for them. Won’t it be fine!” But there is 
nothing in it for him. But when these 
people come to face the ills of a heathen 
life then the missionary may approach, may 
draw very nigh to them, and can ofttimes 
persuade them to seek the help of Him who 
is mighty to save. Human nature is so 
39 


AFRICA, Europe, Latin AMERICA. 


much alike all over the earth that one may 
readily suppose the same Creator made us 
all. Only those in distress came to us in 
the beginning, and what they mistook for 
distress was their eternal salvation disguised 
only enough to secure their attention. When 
our early converts came to us they were 
cast out from the home circle of their 
friends and were counted as lost. They 
were often recalled, caused to suffer severe 
persecution, beset by the witch doctor, and 
given all sorts of medicine to see if their 
religion could not be gotten out of them by 
purging, by emetic, and by scourging. 


GosPEL LAMPS. 


But when all availed nothing the parents 
finally gave them up as dead, although they 
could not forget them. When _ these 
original lamps were first lighted by 
the Father’s love and began to give 
their little light to those about them 

40 


AFRICA. 


that light was so joyous, so full of hope 
that the friends, the very ones who first 
persecuted them, began to inquire, “Is it 
true that there is a God? Is it true that he 
cares for us? And is it possible for a black 
man to find him?” And these very nearest 
and dearest friends from the father down, 
the very ones who did the most of the per- 
secuting, are the very ones who become 
the earliest converts when once the first 
‘convert has become established on a sta- 
tion of his own. And they are faithful. 
Their eyes have been opened by the touch 
of his hand, and now they see. 

What sort of Christians do they eventu- 
ally become? “By their fruits ye shall know 
them.” At Pakuli, where our first girl con- 
vert is now the pastor’s wife—and general 
mother of the whole community—we have a 
school. The mission pays for the food of 
five of the pupils, and the pastor and his 
wife heroically provide for a dozen others. 

41 


AFRICA, EUROPE, LATIN AMERICA. 


At Makodweni, where Tizore resides, the 
mission feeds some ten pupils, while the 
native pastor provides for a host of some 
seventy others. Where they feed and where 
they find shelter God and his ravens only 
know. At Doroti, where resides Ngum- 
bene, a fellow who appeared the least prom- 
ising of them all, there is a glorious work. 
Our last public gathering was there and 
while we were celebrating the Lord’s Sup- 
per a man not far away fell down dead from 
starvation. That day if you had looked into 
the little earthen pot in which the children’s 
breakfast, dinner, and supper were all cook- 
ing at once—for they ate but one meal a 
day—you could have hardly discovered a 
grain of the rice therein, it was so covered 
with grass and roots to eke it out, so that the 
fathers and mothers of the children present 
might taste thereof, for they, too, were on 
the verge of starvation. Should you visit 
some of our stations and spend the night 
42 


| 


‘AFRICA, 


there, you would hear the voice of prayer 
the whole night long, till break of day. 
One of our pastors prayed the whole night 
through. When one really prays like that 
something is going to happen, and it is no 
marvel that he is the spiritual father of half 
the converts in our mission. We have nine 
of these stations where prayer is wont to 
be made. But quite in the way of growth is 
this fact: That on every station they are 
sending in requests that cannot be denied 
for help for the distressed, food for those 
hungry for salvation, and for a larger out- 
fit for carrying on the work of the blessed 
Gospel. 

In the beginning these same converted 
people of to-day fought us as a wild beast 
will fight for its young. They could not 
understand us, and there was no reason 
that they should. But to-day the very chil- 
dren of the mission, through the converting 
agency of the Holy Spirit, are a hundred 

43 


AFRICA, EUROPE, LATIN AMERICA. 


times more efficient in leading their parents 
to God than is your ablest foreign mission- 
ary with all his excellencies. Africa is to 
be converted by the children of Africa, and 
we not only mean the children of her soil, 
but real children in their youth and inno- 
‘cency, in their hope, and in their everlasting 
hold on the very heartstrings of their elders. 
“And a little child shall lead them” is still 
the Gospel method of converting the world. 


GIVING THE WorD IN New TONGUES. 


Your mission has given them the word 
in the Tonga language, has translated every 
word of it into that tongue, and with the aid 
of native converts has printed it all at your 
own mission station and has used up the 
first edition. Then it was brought home, 
where the Bible Society reprinted it for us 
and sent us out again with five hundred new 
copies bound and ready for use. ‘Then, in 
our disappointment because we found the 

44 


AFRICA. 


Tonga could not avail for more than a frac- 
tion of our entire land, we translated the 
entire New Testament a second time, this 
time into the Sheetswa tongue, so that the 
hundreds of thousands and even millions of 
our people will be able to read it in the 
tongue wherein they were born. This 
translation has been a blessed work, but it 
is a very little thing comparatively; for 
while it is easy to make a book it is diffi- 
cult to teach an untaught nation to read it, 
and still far more difficult to enlighten 
their understanding concerning its precious 
truths. This we missionaries can scarcely 
hope to do, but the children of the mission, 
those whom so many of our large-hearted 
Christian people are now _ supporting 
through their brief school hours, these 
children will teach, and teach, and teach 
again, till the myriads of human beings 
now sitting in darkness shall have seen the 
Great Light. 
45 


Arrica, Europe, LATIn AMERICA. 


PRESENT AND FUTURE COMPENSATION. 


Our entire mission field has doubled its 
membership no less than six times within 
the past five years, but we count this as 
very little compared with what shall be if 
you and they and your missionaries will 
cling close to the Saviour and labor together 
with him. Life and light have begun to 
come into the dark valleys of the Limpopo 
and the Sabi, and over the plains of the In- 
hambane, but it has only begun to come. 
Had our birth and environment been cast 
in this desolate region, where the light of 
revelation never came and where all was of 
the earth, and very earthy, if we could have 
known what missions might mean for us 
is it possible we could not have believed in 
them? Foreign missions do pay, and they 
pay not only precious dividends to those 
for whom they are created, but they pay no 


less equally well in the joy and gladness 
46 


‘AFRICA. 


which comes into the hearts of all who 
assist in creating them. 

Let us observe what that “faithful and 
true witness” saw when he stood at the end 
of time and beheld “a great multitude, 
which no man could number”—and men can 
number a great many—who had come up 
“out of great tribulation,” and had “washed 
their robes, and made them white in the 
blood of the Lamb.” ‘They were of every 
tribe, and nation, and people, and tongue— 
not one of all the earth left out. And they 
hunger no more, they thirst no more, for 
their every want is fully satisfied. They shall 
weep no more, not even the mother for the - 
sound of the sweet-voiced babe, once left 
behind, for that dearest life is with her now, 
shining on in the shining life forever, and 
God has wiped away all tears from her eyes. 
God did not create Africa in vain. Her 
people are of the “nations, and tribes, and 
peoples, and tongues” of the earth, and 


47 


Arrica, Europr, LAtin AMERICA. 


they will assuredly be there in the fullness 
of their time. Christ died for Africa no less 
than for Galilee, and as assuredly as~he 
sent his apostles to the ends of the then 
known world he sends his own to the ends 
of the now known world. And the message, 
Eternal Salvation, is just the same. Noth- 
ing could be better. 
Foreign missions pay. 
48 


II. 
EUROPE. 


By REV. WILLIAM H. CRAWFORD, D.D. 


THREE years ago Bishop Goodsell, in re- 
porting our European work to the Mission- 
ary Committee, said, “I have no doubt there 
are more in our Church puzzled concerning 
our being in Europe and in Christian coun- 
tries there than over any other missionary 
problem in the Church.” 

There is a sentiment against Protestant 
missions for Europe; and it is not confined 
to a locality here and there. It is wide- 
spread; and in many instances determined. 
The argument is, “Send the Gospel to the 
heathen; to the millions who have never 
heard the name of Jesus. Europe is Chris- 

4 49 


AFRICA, EuRoPE, LATIN AMERICA. 


tian already and has been for fifteen cen- 
turies, most of it for eighteen centuries.” 
Why send Christian missionaries to Eu- 
rope? Behold her great nations! There 
is Italy. The most Christian of all of the 
Christian nations; the land of Ambrose, 
Augustine, the Gregories, and Savonarola. 
There is France. Her Christian bishops 
date back to Irenzus, the disciple of Poly- 
carp. Christian France boasts of the Ber- 
nards, Bossuet, and Fenelon. Her Made- 
leine and Notre Dame are among the won- 
ders of Christian church architecture. And 
there is Germany. Great, strong, heroic 
Germany. Her Luther and her Melanchthon 
will forever rank among the mightiest ex- 
ponents and defenders of Christian faith. 
I ask again, “Why send missionaries to 
these countries?’ To many it seems ab- 
surd. And it would be absurd if the teach- 
ings of Augustine, Irenzeus, and Luther still 
pervaded these countries. But alas! These 


50 


EUROPE. 


Christian lands have forgotten the source 
of Christian strength and the secret of abid- 
ing power. They have the forin of Chris- 
tianity ; they have the stateliness and cere- 
mony, but not the spirit. What these coun- 
tries need and what they must have, is 
Christianity in earnest. 


Europe A LAND OF LEGEND AND ROMANCE. 


Europe to-day, so far as religion is con- 
cerned, is a land of legend and romance. In 
Germany the opera is more popular than the 
Church. Martin Luther is a name to con- 
jure with, not the name of an apostle of 
righteousness to be imitated. In France 
the baneful sentiment which triumphed in 
the Revolution is still in the ascendency. 
The deluge prophesied by Louis XIV has 
left its wreckage, foul and unsightly, from 
the waters of the Mediterranean to the Eng- 
lish Channel. The teachings of Voltaire 
are forgotten, but his scornful spirit and 


51 


AFrica, Europe, Latin AMERICA. 


insincere life still taint and mar French 
society. In Italy stately churches, monas- 
teries, and convents abound. Priests and 
monks crowd the streets. Shrines and 
crosses are on every corner. Signs of re- 
ligion are everywhere. But fair and sunny 
Italy is dead to spiritual things. Switzer- 
land is little better. Bulgaria, Finland, 
Denmark, Sweden, and Norway are in the 
same list. Devout Christians there are in 
all these countries; there are earnest and 
faithful pastors and true disciples. But 
there are so few of them. 


THe EurorpEAN ConvtTINENT NEEDS A 
Work Like WESLEY'S. 


The field of opportunity in Europe is the 
same field which John Wesley found in 
England in the eighteenth century. What 
that field was I need not describe. This bi- 
centennial year has flooded us with infor- 
mation on the subject. The reformation 

52 


Europe. 


which Wesley accomplished in England is 
known and recognized by the whole Anglo- 
Saxon race. We do not require the testi- 
mony of Methodists. Anglican ritualists, 
rigid Presbyterians, and devout Baptists 
have said more for our founder and the 
movement he inaugurated than we Meth- 
odists have ever dared to. Every intelligent 
student of Christian history now names the 
Wesley movement as one of the two great- 
est forward movements since Pentecost. 
Just such a movement is the supreme need 
of Europe to-day. I say the supreme need. 
What John Wesley did for Christian Eng- 
land is what John Vincent is attempting for 
Christian Europe. The Gospel preached in 
England was the same Gospel which is be- 
ing preached in Europe. Our missionaries 
there are vitalizing Christian truth. They 
are making the class meeting a power for 
good. The prayer meeting is quickening 
spiritual life. Revivals are taking place. 
53 


AFRICA, EUROPE, LATIN AMERICA. 


And Christianity tremendously in earnest 
is being preached. In the light of these 
facts I do not see how we can praise John 
Wesley for his work without doing our best 
to help John Vincent and the men who labor 
with him in the great work they are trying 
to do. Think what their success is going 
to mean. The glorious triumph of Chris- 
tianity in earnest in Europe will count for 
more in making for the peace and prosperity 
of nations than all the policies and all the 
alliances of all the diplomats and all the 
statesmen from Machiavelli to this hour. 


Not A New Gospet, BUT More GOosPEL. 


Dr. Arthur Pierson has recently described 
how out of Wesley the ritualist came Wesley 
the enthusiast and Wesley the evangelist. 
Europe to-day is filled with ritualists. The 
Church there has been almost ritualized to 
death. If out of these ritualists there might 
come in this our time Christian enthusiasts 

54 


EuROPE. 


and Christian evangelists, what a spiritual 
awakening would mark the early decades of 
our new century. What is needed for the 
continent of Europe is what Dr. Henry 
van Dyke has declared to be necessary for 
the whole Church: “Not a new Gospel, but 
more Gospel.” The Gospel which John 
Wesley preached in England, the Gospel of 
salvation full and free for the individual and 
for the race, the Gospel of personal experi- 
ence in Christ Jesus, the Gospel of the wit- 
ness of the Spirit, the Gospel of a holy life 
lived in unholy surroundings, the Gospel of 
the New Testament which teaches repent- 
ance toward God and faith in our Lord 
Jesus Christ, the Gospel which is the dyna- 
mite of God unto salvation. Just as cer- 
tainly as the earnest and faithful preaching 
of such a Gospel brought about phenomenal 
moral and spiritual reformation in England, 
it will bring about moral and spiritual ref- 
ormation in Switzerland, Germany, and the 


55 


AFRICA, EUROPE, LATIN AMERICA. 


northern nations. Splendid Church organ- 
izations exist in all these countries. They 
have the true doctrine. Their catechisms 
are all right. What they need, I. say it 
again, what they need is “Not a new Gos- 
pel, but more Gospel’—that rich, full po- 
tent Gospel which has power to take hold 
of a vile heart and change it, a profligate 
life and reform it, an ill-built character and 
reconstruct it. It is this Gospel, the power 
of God for men, which is being preached by 
our Methodist missionaries on the continent 
of Europe at this very hour. 


A View oF Metnopist Eprscopar, WorK 
IN EUROPE. 


During the past year it was my privilege 
to see something of the work which is being 
done in four of our nine European Confer- 
ences—the two in Germany, the Conference 
in Switzerland, and the Conference in Italy. 


I confess with shame that I went there a 
56 


—_— 


Europe. 


skeptic and ready to find fault. But I came 
back an enthusiastic advocate of our work, 
and convinced with a conviction I cannot 
describe that we ought not to retreat or re- 
trench at any point, but with faith in God 
go wisely and steadily forward until the 
“more Gospel” idea be preached and lived 
and rejoiced in from the blue waters of the 
Mediterranean to the farthest northern cot- 
tage in Scandinavia, and from the remotest 
hut in the Ural Mountains to the eastern 
shore of the Atlantic. And may God speed 
the coming of that good day! 

It was in 1849 that the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church first set foot on European 
soil. We did not push ourselves in after 
rude fashion. We were invited. When 
we arrived we were given a cordial wel- 
come by the people who invited us. That 
- was more than fifty years ago. The ear- 
nest but somewhat impatient Methodist 
who wants to make every dollar count 


57 


7 


AFRICA, EuropE, LATIN AMERICA, 


is saying, “Yes, and what have we to 
show for the half century of work?” Briefly 
as I can, let me tell you. Our work 
was small at first. Measured by some stand- 
ards it is not very large now; but it is a 
good deal larger than some people think. 
The seed sown by Brother Jacoby in Bre- 
men in 1849 has yielded such a harvest that 
we now have in Central Europe three Con- 
ferences—North Germany, South Germany, 
and Switzerland—with a total membership, 
counting the probationers, of 28,815 souls. 
In the Conferences of Sweden and Norway, 
the Missions in Denmark, Finland and St. 
Petersburg, we have a membership of more 
than 27,000. In our Conference in Italy 
and the Bulgarian Mission there are 3,000 
who bear our name. The total membership 
in these three groups of Conferences and 
Missions is a little over 60,000. And in our 
Sunday schools we are 100,000 strong. Re- 
membering all the struggles, discourage- 


58 


EUROPE. 


ments, and disappointments, this showing is 
a hopeful one. We have reason to thank 
God and take courage. 


Mucsu Fruit Sent into State CHURCHES 
AND TO AMERICA. 


But this is not all. Statistics tell only 
part of the story, and in some instances 
a very small part. A presiding elder in 
Norway reports revivals and conversions, 
but says, “Only a few of all who are con- 
verted among us are received into full mem- 
bership in our Churches.”’ Another writes, 
“Most of our converts remain in the State 
Church or go to America.” In one case 
half an entire society left for America in a 
single year. The same thing is happening 
in Italy, and to some extent in Germany. It 
is no exaggeration to say that tens of thou- 
sands every year who are touched by the 
earnestness of Methodist preaching do not 
come into our membership, but remain in 


59 


AFRICA, EuRoPE, LATIN AMERICA. 


our congregations or go back to the State 
Church with a new zeal for Christ. Such 
work as this, while it does not show in fig- 
ures, does count in the building up of 
Christ’s kingdom. In all the essentials of 
Christian progress our work goes steadily 
forward. Under the guidance of our great 
Sunday school genius our Sunday schools 
are being better organized and promise 
much for the future of our work. Even in 
Bulgaria the Sunday school and the day 
school seem to be solving the problem of 
evangelization. We have made some mis- 
takes. We have had to try new methods, 
But the work goes on. 


/ 
Our Work IN ITALY. 


I want to tell you something about what 
we are doing in Italy. I wish I could take 
you into our boys’ industrial school in Ven- 
ice, or show you what we are doing in Milan, 


in Genoa, in Bologna, in Florence, in Naples, 
60 


EUROPE. 


Our work is growing in all these great cen- 
ters. But I must confine myself to Rome, 
first, because I know it best ; and second, be- 
cause it has been misunderstood, and in 
some instances misrepresented. 

I shall never forget a beautiful morning 
in May twelve years ago. As I walked 
along the wide Via Cavour on my way to 
the temporary headquarters of our Metho- 
dist mission, I met the superintendent, Dr. 
William Burt. I need not describe Dr. 
Burt. All Methodism knows him. That 
morning his face was brighter than usual; 
brighter I thought than the Aldombrosa 
gardens I had seen shining above the Via 
Nazionale only a few minutes before. 
“Well, doctor,” said I, “what good news 
this morning?” ‘Come with me and I will 
tell you,’ was the answer. The doctor 
seemed to have the feet of Mercury. Al- 
most before I knew it we were over on the 


Quirinal and on the great street leading 
61 


Arrica, Europe, Latin AMERICA. 


from the king’s palace to the historic Porta 
Pia, through which marched the triumphant 
army of Victor Emmanuel. “There,” said 
the doctor, pointing to a large .open lot, 
“that corner belongs to Methodism, and we 
are going to put up a fine Methodist build- 
ing. Nobody here knows it yet. But it’s 
ours, thank God!’ 

I did not know how much it meant then. 
Of course I did catch something of Dr. 
Burt’s enthusiasm. No one could hear him 
as he talked that day without feeling that 
somehow the kingdom of God had suddenly 
moved forward a thousand years. 

We had in Rome at that time a church 
down in the business quarter by the Piazza 
Poli, some rented rooms over on Via 
Cavour, where Dr. Burt and his family 
lived and where Sunday services were held, 
and a girls’ school in Via Torino, at the top 
of a four-story building. Our membership 


numbered sixty-five, and two Sunday 
62 


EuRore. 


schools had on their register eighty-two 
names. That was all. 


Meruopist BuILDING IN ROME. 


I confess that up to that May morning I 
saw little in the condition of our work to 
encourage, much less inspire, a Methodist 
visitor in Rome. Let me tell you what we 
have now. On that corner where I heard 
the prophet’s voice stands our great Meth- 
odist building, harmonizing in architecture 
and stateliness with the proud government 
buildings on the same street. It is the 
Methodist headquarters for Rome. I wish 
all Methodists could see this building. In 
the basement is our publishing house. Print- 
ing presses are sending out the Evangelista 
—the Christian Advocate of Italian Meth- 
odism—Sunday school periodicals, tracts, 
hymn books and other books. On the first 
floor is the large auditorium of our Italian 


Church, with Epworth League rooms ad- 
63 


AFrica, Europr, LATIN AMERICA. 


joining. The pastor, Rev. Alfredo Tagliala- 
tela, is evangelical and popular. His min- 
istry is attracting large audiences. Nearly 
every Sunday night people are compelled 
to go away from the church unable to find 
standing room. On the same floor is the 
auditorium of our English-speaking church, 
of which Rev. A. W. Leonard, son of our 
corresponding secretary, has been for two 
years the successful pastor. A beautiful 
pipe organ was recently presented to the 
society by Dr. Leonard in memory of his 
noble Christian wife. On other floors are 
apartments occupied by Dr. Burt and his 
family, the pastors of the two churches, the 
editor of our publications, and one or two 
other officials connected with our work. The 
rooms of our theological seminary are in the 
same building, and also the boys’ school. 
Seidom have I seen so much to challenge 
admiration. A prominent Methodist said to 


me once, “We blundered into putting up 
64 


EUROPE. 


that great building in Rome.” If it was a 
blunder I wish we might have more blun- 
dering of the same sort. It seems to me 
about the best specimen of statesmanship I 
have seen recently. 


CRANDON INSTITUTE. 


The second center of our work is Cran- 
don Institute. It is over on Via Veneto, 
just opposite Queen Marguerita’s palace, 
and is by far the best woman’s college and 
girls’ school in the city of Rome. The loca- 
tion is superb. Both the surroundings and 
view are all that heart could desire. As one 
stands in the loggia at the top of the build- 
ing, the glories of Rome are before him. 
The school was founded seven years ago 
and has occupied the present building but 
three years. The attendance is nearly 300, 
and more could be enrolled if the building 
were larger. Among the students is a grand- 
daughter of the great Garibaldi—tittle 

5 65 


AFRICA, EUROPE, LATIN AMERICA. 


Josephine, pet of the school. A granddaugh- 
ter of Mazzini is there, seven daughters of 
Italian generals, and daughters of mem- 
bers of Parliament and other high officers 
of state. As we ascended the steps of the 
building to call on the principal and see the 
school, we met a fine-looking woman who, 
with an attendant, was just leaving. We 
learned later that she was the wife of the 
prime minister of Italy and had called for 
the purpose of placing her two daughters 
in the institution. No one can visit Crandon 
Institute without feeling that the old order 
is changing in Italy, yielding place to new. 


OTHER SCHOOLS. 


The third center of our activity is the Via 
Garibaldi girls’ school. This is on the other 
side of the Tiber and just under Janiculum. 
The building is an old convent. The nuns’ 
cells are now occupied by Methodist girls, 


and the beautiful gardens are their recrea- 
66 


Europe. 


tion ground. Our first visit to the school 
was to witness the entertainment on Christ- 
mas Eve. The second was on Christmas 
Day. We looked over the whole building, 
saw samples of industrial work, and walked 
in the garden. Sucha garden! Remember, 
it was Christmas. But there were orange 
trees, lemon, and mandarin, all heavy with 
ripe fruit; roses and carnations too. It was 
one of those ideal gardens we read about 
but seldom see. Weird stories were told 
us of great passageways, leading out under 
the wall to nobody knows where. But con- 
vent and garden now belong to Methodism. 
As I looked at the girls and then over in 
the direction of the Vatican I could not help 
saying, “Leo, children not thine now walk 
these garden paths.” 

I must not forget the kindergarten over 
to the northeast of the baths of Diocletian, 
a sort of day nursery. Sixty little ones are 


cared for there by Mrs. Burt and two Italian 
67 


AFRICA, EuRoPE, LATIN AMERICA. 


assistants. The parents of each child pay 
five centesimi (one cent) per day for the 
privilege. Who can measure the influence 
of such a work! Our membership in Rome 
shows an increase of four hundred per cent 
since 1891. The home Church hasn’t done 
better than that. 


SIGNIFICANT FActs, 


Three facts should greatly increase our 
interest in the work in Rome. First, it com- 
mands the respect and admiration of the 
leaders of the Italian government. This is 
witnessed by the favor of Italian news- 
papers and by the families represented in 
our schools. The king said not long ago to 
Dr. Burt, referring to our new building near 
his palace, “I watched your building going 
up with the greatest of interest. I am glad 
it is where it is, because by its very presence 
it says to the civilized world that there is 


liberty of conscience in the city of Rome.” 
68 


EuROopE. 


The second fact is that in our schools we are 
preparing leaders. There is nothing Italy 
needs so much to-day as good leadership, 
and she must have it if the dreams of Gari- 
baldi and Victor Emmanuel are ever to be 
realized. The third fact is that our work 
has assumed such proportions that it was 
openly recognized by Pope Leo. Not that 
he favored it. Quite the reverse. Under 
his influence a society was organized among 
Catholic women in Rome to counteract the 
influence of Crandon Institute. Another 
society was formed recently, four cardinals 
in it, with the avowed purpose of driving 
Protestantism, and particularly Methodism, 
out of Rome. 

It is to the glory of our Church that we 
are so strongly planted in the City of the 
Seven Hills. A large part of the population, 
and the more intelligent part, has altogether 
broken away from the Roman Catholic 
faith ; with these people it is either Protest- 


69 


AFRICA, Europe, LATIN AMERICA. 


ism or nothing. For most of them just now, 
it is nothing. We must win them to Christ. 


A. GENERAL Forwarp MovEMEN’T FOR THE 
CoNTINENT. 


I have said nothing about the European 
countries in which we have no representa- 
tion. In some of them a forward movement 
has already begun. The McAll Mission in 
Paris, and the evangelical churches through- 
out France, are doing much good. But we 
are only at the beginning. All Europe must 
be reached. “There are no arguments,” 
says Bishop Vincent, “against this aggres- 
sive work. There are abundant and unan- 
swerable arguments for it.” In 1812, in the 
Senate of Massachusetts, a man objected to 
the incorporation.of the American Board of 
Foreign Missions on the ground that “the 
country had no religion to spare.” Dr. van 
Dyke in commenting on the fact says, “If 
that objection had prevailed I believe by 

70 


Europe. 


this time the country would have no religion 
to keep.” We ought to understand-that in 
helping our brothers beyond the sea we are 
helping ourselves. Never was this truer 
than now. America has come to a new 
place among the nations. She is respected 
and honored by the nations as never before. 
Our opportunity is great, also our responsi- 
bility. Through our missionaries we are 
touching and ennobling the life which is to 
be a part of our life. Seldom does God give 
to a nation such a chance as we have now 
on the continent of Europe. 

When I speak for Europe I speak for 
what I believe to be one of the most impor- 
tant and promising of our mission fields. 
Does some one still cry out, “Insufficient re- 
sults.” I ask, “What do we expect as the 
reward of missionary labor?” You say first, 
“Conversions; second, increase of spiritual 
life; third, Christian activity manifesting 
itself in self-support and missionary spirit.” 


Fx 


AFRICA, EUROPE, LATIN AMERICA, 


All this is being realized. Not as many con- 
versions as we could wish. But that is true 
here at home. Our constant prayer is for 
greater ingathering. Our brethren in Eu- 
rope are praying the same prayer. And God 
is answering their prayer. Even while this 
Convention is going on, conversions are tak- 
ing place, there is quickening of spiritual 
life, the altar fires of Christian faith and 
Christian devotion are burning, and there 
are signs of Christian activity which prom- 
ise a new order of things—an order of 
things in which the nations of Europe shall 
unite heart and soul with Great Britain and 
America and under the banner of King 
Jesus with the purpose of bringing home to 
the Father’s house the last man for whom 
Christ died. With faith that what the signs 
of Christian activity promise may be fully 
realized, I would write in large letters on all 
four walls of this great building this sen- 
tence, “NOT A NEW GOSPEL FOR 
72 


Europe. 


EUROPE, BUT MORE GOSPEL.” Eu- 
rope evangelized, and the great nations of 
the earth will stand shoulder to shoulder for 
the speedy evangelization of the world. 


Tue Urcent CALL. 


I urge the cause of Europe this morning 
not because of any honor or glory which 
may come to the Methodist Church, but for 
the sake of aggressive Christianity, under 
high command to break chains and remove 
mountains until the whole wide world shall 
be brought to the feet of Jesus ; for the sake 
of our beloved America, whose ultimate 
future greatness will be measured by her un- 
flinching royalty to the King of kings; for 
the sake of our brothers and our sisters who 
in hard and uninviting fields, with courage 
and fortitude greater than the heroes of 
Ulysses, are meeting “the thunder and the 
sunshine” with more than frolic welcome; 
for the sake of the Bleeding Hands set to 

73 


AFRICA, EuRoPE, LATIN AMERICA. 


the heroic task of turning the stream of cen- : 
turies toward the everlasting Kingdom of - 
righteousness and true holiness ; for the sake . ’ 
of humanity and the love of Jesus. I plead 7 
for a new order of the Sacred Heart for the — 
continent of Europe. I plead for more men, ~ 
more money, and more consecration. I plead © 
for a more careful study of the field. I 
plead for more sympathy for our workers, q 
more cooperation, more earnest and de- — 
termined effort. We Methodists owe a debt — 
to Europe which we ought to pay. It was — 
under the preaching of Count Zinzendorf — 
and Peter Boehler, Germans, that John Wes- 
ley’s heart became strangely warmed. More — 
than this. Your grandsires and mine, some a 
of them, lie sleeping in European grave- — 
yards. Their blood runs warm in our veins. — 
Sons and daughters of Wesley! Hear me! — 
If we shall do for the continent of Europe — 
in the next decade what we ought to do, — 
what responsibility and opportunity com- — 

74 


EUROPE. 


mand, I believe we shall see not many years 
hence a mighty spiritual awakening like 
unto that which blessed England under the 
leadership of our illustrious founder. The 
time is ripe. The Lord of the harvest is 
waiting. Our decision will affect the fate of 
millions and the spiritual prosperity of a 
continent. God help us to decide right! 
75 


ITE 
LATIN AMERICA. 


By REV. CHARLES W. DREES, D.D. 


THERE is a Latin America as there is an 
Anglo-Saxon America, and these two de- 
scriptive appellations will probably remain 
applicable to the lands of the western hemi- 
sphere to the end of time. The territorial 
extent of Latin America is more than equal 
in superficial area to Anglo-Saxon America. 
It offers the spectacle of a family of nations: 
Mexico at the north, Argentina and Chile 
at the south, the former equal to one fourth 
of the area of the United States, and Ar- 
gentina, together with Paraguay and Uru- 


guay, equaling the whole extent embraced 
76 
/ 


> LATIN AMERICA. 


between the summits of the Alleghany 
Mountains and those of the Rockies. Brazil 
with its mighty Amazon, whose course coin- 
cides approximately with the equator, holds 
a region vaster than our United States apart 
from Alaska and our island possessions. 
Take the States of Minnesota, Iowa, Mis- 
souri, Arkansas, and Louisiana, divide them 
along the meridian drawn through their 
centers, join the two strips end to end, and 
you have a territory somewhat like that of 
Chile, twenty-eight hundred miles long, a 
distance equal to that from Puget Sound to 
Panama. Take the northwestern’ terri- 
tory, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and 
Wisconsin, add to them Texas, vaster than 
all the five together, and you have a terri- 
tory equal to that of Colombia. Bolivia 
and Peru each one spread out over our 
territory would cover as large a space, while 
Venezuela is larger than any one of these. 
Add to all these the little group of nations 
77 


AFRICA, EuROPE, LATIN AMERICA. 


in Central America and the islands of the 
sea and you have an area of more than eight 
millions of square miles, the heritage of a 
people numbering more than fifty millions 
of souls. Such is Latin America, its extent 
and population. 

This population from Mexico to the 
Straits of Magellan is pratically of one race 
and of one speech. Whatever the mingling 
of aboriginal blood or the influx of Euro- 
pean population, Central and South Amer- 
ica are predominantly Spanish and Portu- 
guese—of Latin stock—as North America 
is predominantly Anglo-Saxon. It might 
be said that as the mingling of the nations 
in our own country is producing a composite 
type, new in the history of the world, so the 
mingling of the races in South America, 
especially in the vast plains of the Plata, is 
producing a composite type whose charac- 
teristics are determined by the currents of 


Latin blood. 
78 


eR ————— 


Ee ee ee 


LATIN AMERICA. 


Duay LINEs oF EXPANSION AND RELIGION. 


At about the same period the action be- 
gan of the forces which have determined 
this development. Southward and _ ever 
southward have flowed the tides of the 
Latin race in this new migration, while 
westward and ever westward the star of 
Anglo-Saxon empire has taken its way. It 
seems as though the God who metes out to 
the nations their habitation has so divided 
the heritage of this western world as that 
the future of each of these great races 
should here find its widest expansion and 
its largest development. 

And what is true of race and language 
is true of religious faith. Columbus land- 
ing upon the shores of Guanahani planted 
the standard of the cross, to be followed by 
tonsured priest and hooded monk represent- 
ing a theory of Christianity which exalts 
the priest and the sacrament in the hands of 


79 


ArFrica, Europe, LAtrn AMERICA. 


a priest, erecting thus in the Church as an 
institution an indispensable mediary for the 
communication of divine grace to human 
souls. The Pilgrim fathers, landing upon 
the “rock-bound shores of New England,” 
bearing in their hands the open Bible, and 
seeking the direct communication of the 
soul with God through the one Mediator 
and only High Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ, 
represented Protestant Christianity in its 
fullest power and with all its possibilities. 
In this last contrast appears the funda- 
mental principle that compels and inspires 
our mission work in Latin America. It is 
the old issue, never entirely lost sight of in 
the history of Christianity, between sacer- 
dotalism and the universal priesthood of 
believers. The conflict was renewed and 
became vital in the history of Christendom 
with the Protestant Reformation of the six- 
teenth century. It was then that the lines 


were drawn and two great interpretations 
80 


LATIN AMERICA. 


of the Christian system began the debate 
that was to issue in the determination as to 
which is the true expression of the faith as 
it is in Christ. The vast conflict was begun 
in Europe, but in Europe it could not be 
fought out on equal terms. Romanism, in- 
trenched for a thousand years, with untold 
wealth at its command and joining its 
claims with the assumptions and the greed 
of human world-powers, offered an impas- 
sable barrier for three centuries to the ad- 
vance of Protestantism. In the providence 
of God this conflict is to be fought out to 
its final issue in these Americas. 

At about the same period Roman and 
evangelical Christianity were transplanted to 
a region where upon the vastest arena con- 
ceivable, and each with freedom to develop 
according to its own genius and bear its 
ripest fruits, they are destined to work out 
the problem to its final solution. You seek 


Romanism in its influence upon peoples and 
6 81 


AFRICA, EUROPE, LATIN AMERICA. 


institutions where that influence is most 
completely shown, and you must seek it not 
where Romanism has been in direct contact 
with Protestantism, but where it has held 
exclusive sway. You seek a demonstration 
of the fruits of Protestantism, and you find 
them not where the Church has been in alli- 
ance with the State, but in free America. 

For three centuries Romanism and Prot- 
estantism developed, each according to its 
own genius, in this western world; and he 
who runs may read the lesson of these 
centuries. 


Tue Great Issue DRAWN. 


For three centuries the action of the Prot- 
estant religion upon the Latin race was 
wholly paralyzed. It was not until the vin- 
dication of the open Bible by the Lutheran 
Reformation of the sixteenth century was 
complemented by the vindication of the 


work of the Holy Spirit and the rights of 
82 


eal 


LATIN AMERICA, 


the Christian consciousness in the Wesleyan 
Reformation of the eighteenth century that 
Protestantism could go forth in vital power 
to accomplish in the new era of the Refor- 
mation the unity of Christendom in loyalty 
to God’s holy word and in the experience 
of salvation certified by the witness of the 
Holy Spirit. 

And it was not until the capstone of the 
Roman system was brought forth with 
shoutings, when the infallibility of the pope 
was proclaimed from the balcony of St. 
Peter’s in Rome, that the providence of God 
struck the hour for the renewal of the ad- 
vance movement of Protestantism both in 
Europe and in America. The dogma of 
the papal infallibility determines finally and 
irrevocably, so far as the Roman system is 
concerned, its irreconcilable conflict with 
the word of God. It claims the Bible, God’s 
gift to men as men, as the book of the priest, 


to be interpreted in no other way than as 
83 


AFRICA, EUROPE, LATIN AMERICA. 


authorized by an infallible pope. It makes 
Romanism as a system forever irreformable 
save by protest, by revolution. Since then 
God’s message to his children living under 
that system is, “ Come out from the midst 
of her, that ye be not partakers of her tor- 
ments.” 

At once after that proclamation the issue 
became plain to Christendom, and from that 
moment there was borne in upon the con- 
sciousness of Protestantism its mission to 
proclaim, with the open Bible in hand, the 
birthright of the sons of God. That birth- 
right is to possess, each man for himself, 
the word of God, and to experience, each 
man in himself, without the necessary me- 
diation of priest or sacrament, the assurance 
of his adoption into the divine family. 


Tue Divine VeErRpIct IN History. 


Let me recall to you the astonishing suc- 
cession of events in that epochal year of 
84 


———— 


LATIN AMERICA, 


1870. Papal Christendom was in convoca- 
tion at the Vatican Council. A question of 
policy affecting the destiny of the Spanish 
people, whose history has been so inter- 
woven with all European politics and with 
all American destiny, was agitating the 
courts of Europe. French arms supported 
in Rome the temporal power of the pope. 
Protestant Prussia aspired, in dispute with 
Catholic France, to designate an occupant 
for the vacant Spanish throne. The Council 
was debating the project for the definition 
as a dogma of papal infallibility. The courts 
were in dispute as to a question of temporal 
sovereignty. On the 18th of July the final 
vote having been taken in the Council, the 
papal infallibility was proclaimed from the 
balcony of St. Peter’s. Within twenty-four 
hours war was declared between Prussia 
and France. After a campaign of less than 
forty-five days French arms went down in 


defeat before the arms of united Germany, 
85 


AFRICA, EUROPE, LATIN AMERICA. 


a Germany united in the throes of conflict 
and under the leadership of a Protestant 
nation. Louis Napoleon dethroned and 
France standing upon the threshold of its 
new history as a republic, French troops 
could no longer maintain the pope upon his 
temporal throne. They were withdrawn 
from Rome, and on the 2oth of September 
through the entrance of the Porta Pia the 


army of united Italy entered the Eternal 


City and the temporal power of the popes 
came to an end forever. 

A divinely taught leader in modern mis- 
sions has said: “I do not hesitate to ex- 
press the conviction that, as affecting the 
work of evangelical missions, this fall of 
the temporal power of the pope was the 
most momentous event of modern history, 
for it made papal Christendom what it 
never had been and never could be before— 
an open and accessible field for preaching 


the Gospel of the Son of God.” 
86 


ea 


Latin AMERICA. 


Ture Vast Freip OPENED. 


From this period there has been the most 
astonishing awakening in the conviction of 
Protestant Christians as to the duty of bear- 
ing witness to the truth among the peoples 
of Roman faith. A marvelous development 
had prepared the way in many of the coun- 
tries of Spanish America for the free circu- 
lation of the word of God and the open 
proclamation of Gospel truth. Mexico, in 
the throes of a mighty internal conflict, had 
proclaimed religious liberty and decreed the 
separation between Church and State. Ar- 
gentina after long internal conflict had 
faced the issue, and under a liberal consti- 
tution, although not decreeing formal sepa- 
ration between Church and State, had 
nevertheless proclaimed freedom of speech, 
of the press, and of public worship. Chile 
by a legislative interpretation of the un- 


changed letter of her constitution had 
87 


AFRIcA, EUROPE, LATIN AMERICA. 


opened the way for the public preaching of 
the Gospel. Brazil under its liberal and en- 
lightened emperor had taken its place 
among the progressive nations of America, 
guaranteeing the rights of conscience and 
of free public worship, a transformation 
soon to be followed by a formal separation 
of Church and State. In the other nations 
of Central and South America the conflict 
was in progress with varying fortune, and 
it only needed the resolute purpose and un- 
daunted faith of some messenger of the 
truth to pry open the doors and give en- 
trance to the light. 

Thus it has happened that while South- 
ern Europe, from Rome itself to the farth- 
est bounds of the lands long held under 
papal sway, became accessible to the Gospel, 
the whole of Latin America became an open 
mission field, so that if Rome could main- 
tain under its missionary organization, the 


“Propaganda Fide,” aggressive missionary 
88 


Latin AMERICA, 


operations in the United States, Protestant- 
ism might with equal right and, in response 
to the providential call, send its missionaries 
with the open Bible into every country of 
Latin America. 


Tur Work BEcuN. 


This missionary progress in Latin Amer- 
ica has a definite date for its beginning in 
the year 1870. At that date there were 
scarcely any Protestant missions in Latin 
America. For thirty years the men who 
represented our own Church in the Argen- 
tine Republic, under pressure of restrictive 
laws or executive control which forbade the 
circulation of the Bible and the preaching 
of the Gospel in the vulgar tongue, had con- 
fined their operations to little groups of 
English-speaking people. Small beginnings 
in Brazil and Colombia could all together 
number their congregations upon less than 
the ten fingers of one’s hands, while con- 


89 


AFrica, Europe, Latin AMERICA. 


verts from the native people were less than 
one hundred. 

Such progress as has been made is the 
fruit of scarce thirty years of effort. Lim- 
iting our view to our own Church, the 
Mexico Mission began in 1873; Spanish 
work in Argentina was inaugurated in 
1867, but did not reach its period of rapid 
development until 1880; work in Chile 
began in 1878; in Peru in 1890; while that 
in Paraguay, Ecuador, and Bolivia is of 
still more recent date. 


Tue Marin LINES OF PROGRESS. 


1. The issue has been defined. It is the 
issue between the open Bible, God’s message 
to every man, and the assumptions of a 
Church placing its interpretation of the 
word and its definitions as to dogma and 
duty above the word itself as received by a 
conscience illuminated by the direct light 
of the Spirit of God. It is the issue between 

go 


Latin AMERICA. 


the birthright of the sons of God, the direct 
access of the soul to the living Christ and 
through him to the heavenly Father, and 
the assumption of priestly prerogative as 
mediating between the individual soul and 
God. It is the issue between sacerdotalism 
and the universal priesthood of believers ; 
the issue between testimony of the Holy 
Spirit in Christian consciousness and the 
pretended right of a human institution to 
determine the relation of a soul to God, 

2. The field has been entered and meas- 
urably occupied. Take the capitals of Spanish 
America, and in Mexico City, Quito, Lima, 
La Paz, Santiago, Buenos Ayres, Monte- 
video, Asuncion, and San Juan you have 
the centers of Methodist missionary work 
in as many nations, each the center of multi- 
plied congregations in actual existence or 
in early prospect. Our sister Methodism 
holds Rio de Janeiro and Havana, Brazil 
and Cuba. 

gl 


7 


ArFrica, Europe, LATIN AMERICA, 


3. We have determined the agencies: the 
circulation of the Holy Scriptures without 
note or comment ; the preaching of the Gos- 
pel in the power of the Spirit; the multipli- 
cation of the testimony to the truth by the 
printed page through our mission presses ; 
education through the Christian school, 
training up the youth of our own Church 
in knowledge and in piety, preparing 
the workers, sons of the people, who 
shall go forth to proclaim the message 
to their countrymen; the hospital, with 
its multiplication of the healing miracles 
ever associated with the action of the — 
living Christ. 

4. We have developed a plant, not fully, 
but in many places, demonstrating the van- 
tage ground given to the work of evangeli- 
zation by the church edifice, varying from 
the simple chapel of pole and thatch, of 
wood and tile, to the stately edifice for 
church and press and school of which such 

92 


LATIN AMERICA, 


notable examples are afforded in Mexico 
City, Santiago, and Buenos Ayres. 

5. We have discovered the men. In every 
land from Mexico to Argentina the spirit 
of God has called forth from the people 
those who are the messengers of the Gospel 
to their own fellow-countrymen. Valder- 
rama and his companions in Mexico, Pen- 
zotti in Peru, Venegas in Chile, Thomson, 
Tallon, Howard, Vasquez, and Abeledo in 
Argentina — these are typical’ names from 
the Conference rolls of these Latin-Ameri- 
can countries. As always in the history of 
evangelization, the Spirit of God exalts 
those “ born of the people” and the witness 
of him who can say, “ One thing I know, 
that, whereas I was blind, now I see,” makes 
most powerful appeal to the people. 

6. We have reached, and are reaching, 
the people. It is no longer a question as to 
whether the Gospel is needed by the people 
or its preaching will be received. In Latin 

93 


AFRICA, EUROPE, LATIN AMERICA. 


America we have at this hour not less than 
17,000 members and probationers in the 
Methodist churches of our own denomina- 
tion. Add to this the 11,000 gathered in by 
our sister Methodist Church of the South 
and there are not less than 28,000 Meth- 
odists of Latin race, of Spanish and Portu- 
guese speech, in this western world. Take 
into your thought the thousands who 
through the years have borne steadfast wit- 
ness to the truth, the martyrs who in Mex- 
ico have sealed that witness by their blood, 
the dying testimonies of those who have 
been able to say with John Wesley, “The 
best of all is, God is with us,” and we may 
surely rejoice in the fact that God has not 
left himself without witnesses among these 
people but has given many seals to the min- 
istry of his Church. If we may without 
making invidious comparison state the rel- 
ative results in this and some other fields 
dear to the Church, it will appear that re- 
94 


LATIN AMERICA. 


sults in Latin America have been propor- 
tionate not only with the effort expended 
but with the fruits elsewhere gathered. 
Our work in China, dating from 1848, a 
period twenty-two years longer than is em- 
braced in the history of our Spanish mis- 
sions, now numbers about 22,000 communi- 
cants. Japan and Korea stretch out their 
hands to God, and already have given us 
13,000 communicants ; while Latin America, 
with its history of thirty years of mission- 
ary effort, gives to us 17,000 souls. By all 
comparisons the results are such as should 
fill with joy the heart of the Church. 

7. Incidental results of far-reaching con- 
sequences enlarge our view of the scope of 
this work and of its future promise. Every- 
where the presence of Protestantism has 
stimulated progress, given vigor and sta- 
bility to reform movements, inspired new 
enthusiasm for education, created new 
ideals of living, increased the sum of human 

95 


AFRICA, EuRopE, LATIN AMERICA. 


happiness. There can be no doubt that in 
Mexico the presence of Protestant missions 
has assured the permanency of the freedom 
and progress guaranteed by the laws of re- 
form. Under the leadership of that mis- 
sionary hero, Thomas B. Wood, marriage 
laws in Peru and in Paraguay have been 
modified as the result of urgent argument, 
appeal, and example, until it is now possible 
in these countries for Protestant Christians 
to secure the sanction of the civil law for the 
constitution of their families without the 
sacrifice of their conscientious convictions 
by yielding to the demands of the Roman 
Church. To William Goodfellow and to 
Thomas B. Wood was given a large place 
in organizing the modern educational move- 
ments in Argentina, Uruguay, and Peru. It 
is not strange that as a result of the position 
taken by our Protestant movement in Latin- 
American countries, public esteem has been 


assured, confidence created, men in public 
96 


OO ——— a 


LATIN AMERICA. 


life have expressed the highest appreciation 
of the influence of the Protestant missions, 
willingly attending upon public services and 
furictions, and declaring in not a few in- 
stances their conviction that Protestantism 
offers clearest assurances for the future 
greatness of their country. 


Tue Fretp Is Open. 


From the Rio Grande to the Straits there 
is scarcely a region, a province, a district, 
a rural neighborhood where the Gospel may 
not be preached, freely in most places, act- 
ually, despite local restrictions in certain 
countries. Notwithstanding the fact that 
constitutions and laws in. Peru and in 
Bolivia still brand Protestants as heretics 
and put Protestant service under the ban of 
the law, it is still possible for the humble 
messenger of the truth to proclaim his mes- 
sage. There are still countries, as in Peru 
and Bolivia, where the position of our mis- 


7 97 


AFRICA, EuROPE, LATIN AMERICA. 


sionaries should be strengthened and the 
rights of Christian conscience be vindicated 
by bringing to bear the full force of Chris- 
tian sentiment and of enlightened public 
policy to secure the recognition of the right 
to freedom of conscience, of the press, and 
of public worship. 


Tue SpeciFic NEEDs. 


1. Reinforcement in men, to enable us to 
enter open doors and more completely oc- 
cupy the fields already held. 

2. The appropriation to these fields of the 
moneys necessary to carry to their comple- 
tion many church-building enterprises, in- 
augurated by the faith and consecration of 
the people, but held in suspense in conse- 
quence of their poverty, and for erecting 
additional churches as the need arises. 

3. Provision for hospitals and institu- 
tions for industrial training in the important 
centers of our chief mission fields. 


98 


LATIN AMERICA. 


4. The endowment of our educational in- 
stitutions in Puebla, Mexico; in Santiago, 
Chile; in Buenos Ayres and Mercedes, Ar- 
gentina; in Lima, Peru; and in San Juan, 
Porto Rico. 

5. The enlargement of our mission 
presses and the provision by the Book Con- 
cerns for the production and distribution 
of the Discipline, Hymnal, and standard lit- 
erature of our Church and of Protestantism. 

99 


LV. 


DIFFICULTIES IN THE FOR- 
EIGN MISSION FIELD: 


By REV. W. F. OLDHAM, D.D. 


TuHat there are vast difficulties in the 
way of the success of the Gospel in pagan 
and Moslem lands may well be accepted 
without elaboration or dispute. That these 
difficulties are insurmountable, or, if sur- 
mountable, are so at an expense of life and 
money not warranted by the outcome, has 
always been the unbelieving cry of infidelity, 
too widely accepted by half-hearted Chris- 
tianity. It may be shown, however, that 
the difficulties, great and varied though they 
be, may be overcome. This is not the dic- 


tum of blind faith but the established fact of 
100 


Tue ForeiIcn Mission FIELD. 


history. Polished philosophies, intrenched 
pagan systems bolstered by all the pomp and 
power of the state, and rude brutal systems 
of pagan darkness have alike been met by 
ever young and gentle Christianity and be- 
fore the irresistible might of truth and ten- 
derness have disappeared, not slain, but 
transformed ; and some of the most enlight- 
ened and progressive peoples of our day are 
in themselves, in their daily contribution to 
civilization, the silent and abiding proof of 
the irresistible power of that leaven that 
Jesus introduced into the dead meal of 
human society. 


Some Missionary DIFFICULTIES. 


These necessarily vary with the fields. 
Paganism presents no level monotony of 
human thinking. Conditions vary widely, 
for example, between priest-ridden, caste- 
bound India and a great national democracy 


broken only by a corrupt aristocracy of let- 
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AFRICA, EUROPE, LATIN AMERICA, 


ters monopolizing official life, as in China; 
or between the bitterly scornful, intolerant, 
and rough-handed Mohammedans of any 
country and the alert, vivacious, religiously 
hospitable but heady Japanese. And yet, 
there is a certain large similarity in all un- 
Christed fields, so that, mutatis mutandis, 
the great oppositions in any one are to be 
found under some guise in every other. Of 
these difficulties, I note those that stand out 
in community of prominence. 


Toe CARNAL HEART. 


The first is the carnal heart, which is 
everywhere “enmity against God.” How- 
ever amiable one may be in his estimates of 
human nature when seated comfortably and 
complacently in his own study, or as he pro- 
claims his invertebrate theories to applaud- 
ing crowds at home, he will not long be in 
any heathen land without discovering that 


whatever “wavering image of Deity” there 
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Tue ForeicN Mission FI&Lp. 


may yet be in man, long centuries of igno- 
rance of the divine code and the divine re- 
quirements do not create in man the gentle 
temper and wistful soul often attributed to 
the heathen world by fanciful romancers. 
But behind surface mildness will be found 
hardened cruelty, and beneath polished so- 
cial modes, heartlessness and depths of de- 
ceit, while in ruder systems are degradation 
and inhumanities painful to consider. St. 
Paul in his Epistle to the Romans much 
more faithfully portrayed the moral condi- 
tion of heathenism than sentimental travel- 
ers whose “pagans” are the product of their 
own amiable thinking. 


LACK oF SprrITUAL APPREHENSION. 


This carnality of nature is accompanied 
by an utter lack of spiritual apprehension. 
The deadening of the human conscience 
when not continually disturbed by the thun- 


ders of Sinai or the more awful whispers 
103. 


AFRICA, EuRopE, LATIN .AMERICA. 


of the Mount of Beatitudes is a painful and 
pathetic fact. No matter how elevated the 
sentiments to be found scattered through 
the literature of India, nor how precisely 
correct the cold and formal codes of China, 
the bitter disappointment and abiding pain 
of every sincere missionary worker in every 
heathen land is the deadness of the people’s 
hearts to spiritual truth. O! the courage 
needed by the truly Christian missionary 
when facing heathenism—somber, massive, 
dull, dead. He realizes that these before him 
are not simple-hearted children of nature, 
but are sinners sodden with centuries of ig- 
norance of the revealed will of God and by 
the social intrenchment of vices that must 
ever seek to hide in the clearer light of 
Jesus’s presence. 


OPPOSITIONS FROM DIFFERENCES OF RACE. 


I note next the very real and largely un- 


avoidable difficulty of the subtle oppositions 
104 


ete ini 


Tue Foreicn Mission FIeExp. 


that arise from differences in race. Even 
when the missionary is free from the vul- 
garity of exalting his own race and his civ- 
ilization as over against his hearers, be he 
ever so humble and discreet, some alienation 
of interest, some hostility of spirit must be 
expected from the fact that the missionary 
is not the only man of his race in any for- 
eign field. The vices, the hauteur, the arro- 
gance of his countrymen serve to raise a 
barrier against him and his message in the 
sympathies >f the people. 


SocIAL AND NATIONAL BARRIERS. 


Again, the religions of the people are in- 
trenched in their social and national life, 
and to invite a man to become a Christian 
is to ask him to court family ostracism and 
to be looked upon as a traitor against his 
own people and false to his nationality. For 
a Hindu to become a Christian is to be vio- 


lently thrust outside the pale of Hindu 
105 


AFricA, Europe, LATIN AMERICA. 


society, to be refused water from the village 
well, and, sometimes, food from the village 
bazaar, and to be held responsible for every 
misfortune of disease or famine with which 
the gods may afflict the locality. To a 
Chinaman, a profession of Christianity 
means dislocation from the life of his vil- 
lage, and the anger of his fellows that he 
has withdrawn from the support of the vil- 
lage shrines—a renegade to race and na- 
tion still living among them, while he re- 
fuses to support their time-honored insti- 
tutions. 


ATTITUDE OF Local GOVERNMENTS. 


The attitude of the local government to- 
ward Christian missions is sometimes a 
great hindrance. When, as in the case of 
Turkey, all Mohammedan subjects know 
that a profession of Christianity is equal to 
a sentence of death, to be promptly carried 


out, the hope of Christian advance is neces- 
106 


Tue Foreicn Mission FIetp 


sarily small. But even when nominal freedom 
of conscience obtains, governmental agents 
powerfully affect the course of missions. 
Sometimes it is a heathen government 
which, though forced outwardly to consent 
to the presence of Christians, multiplies 
against them a thousand petty persecutions ; 
sometimes, and worse, it is a nominally 
Christian government whose officials far 
from the mother country, feeling keenly the 
reproach of the pure life and the teachings 
of liberty that come from the Christian 
camp, throw the whole force of their pres- 
tige against the missionary and his follow- 
ers. But above all this, is the irritation of 
the peoples and the positive wrongs done 
them by the military violence and the com- 
mercial greed of political Christianity. 


_ Farninc To FotLow up VIcrory. 


And last, but perhaps most difficult of all, 


is the deep disappointment of the mission- 
107 


AFrIcA, Europe, LATIN AMERICA. 


ary forces, when, against all oppositions and 
with meager resources, they still achieve 
notable victory and turn to the home Church 
for added reinforcements to hold their 
ground, and are then met with apathy if not 
positive reproach that their wants are ever 
increasing. That, in the moment of vic- 
tory, a half-lethargic Church fails to give 
that measure of sympathetic approval and 
added help which enlarge the beginnings 
of victory into universal conquest, is the 
sorest of all disappointments and most diffi- 
cult of all obstacles to encounter. All the 
other difficulties are before the missionary, 
and facing them, he is prepared to endure 
and overcome. This is from behind, from 
among his own people. This half dead- | 
ness of feeling, however, is passing away, 
and with the new interest in the Church 
at home we may confidently look for 
larger cheer abroad and ever-increasing 
victory. 
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Tue Foreicn Mission FIeLp, 


Gop GREATER THAN ALL DIFFICULTIES. 


The array of difficulties is great and de- 
pressing. But thank God that against all 
of them we may prevail and do prevail. 
Lethargy, vicious opposition, the deadened 
soul, the benumbed conscience, hostile gov- 
ernmental and social forces, imperfect agen- 
cies, a half-awakened Church, all are swept 
aside by the mighty tides of divine power, 
which amid all our feebleness is yet our stay 
and our energy. 

I stood one day looking upon one of the 
most beautiful structures there is in all the 
world—that great, gold-shod spire that 
springs aloft from that building on the top 
of the hill near the city of Rangoon in Brit- 
ish Burma. There was the tall spire of that 
heathen pagoda, and there was an everlast- 
ing, continuous tinkling, the pouring down 
of music on the surrounding streets. On the 
top of that high hill stood this building. 

109 


‘Africa, Europe, LATIN AMERICA. 


There are no priests and no monks in that 
pagoda, but still for all that it has a tongue 
with which the people are quite familiar. I 
stood talking with a man in the Hindustani 
tongue, and while speaking with him I 
drew his attention to the fact of the people 
making obeisance to the clanging of the 
bells. There were hundreds of pilgrims 
moving hither and thither and all taking in 
the sound of the bells; and when, as if it 
were from a stronger puff of wind, the bells 
clanged out a little more loudly, every pil- 
grim immediately bowed his head; even the 
man that I was talking with did the same. 
I stopped at once, for why should I interfere 
with a Buddhist or anyone else in the atti- 
tude of prayer? When he was through I 
said, “What is it?’ and he said, apolo- 
getically, because he knew I knew some- 
thing of the law, “It is a tradition which 
does not belong to Buddhism, which has 


overtaken us, and overwhelmed us, and we 
IIO 


- Tur Foreicn Mission FI. 


have been swept away with it.” “What is 
it?’ And he said: “Don’t you hear the 
sound of the bells? The common people 
think every time they hear the bells clang 
out in that way that they are the spirits 
calling on those who are left behind. That 
is not Buddhism, but that is Hinduism, and 
that is how Hinduism has crowded into 
Buddhism. And when they hear a particu- 
larly loud spell of sound they think it is the 
spirit of the Lord Buddha himself, and that 
he is thus manifesting his presence to those 
bowing humbly before him.” I did not dis- 
pute that assertion, but I took the parable to 
myself, and have thought of it ever since. 
There is a great temple: it is in the heart of 
the human family, and there are golden 
bells, there are bells of faith, and hope, and 
they are ringing out whenever any good in- 
fluence touches them, and above all they 
swell out to their uttermost when the Spirit 


of the Lord God himself passes by. Breth- 
Iif 


ArFrica, Europe, Latin AMERICA. 


ren, the golden bells are swinging and over- 
coming all obstacles. The obstacles are 
great, but the power of Jesus Christ is 


greater. 
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DATE DUE 


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